Abstract
Pasture implantation fragments and reduces the Amazonian forest area. The objective was to quantify landscape changes in 1985, 2000 and 2015 in northern Mato Grosso, Brazil. The study was carried out in three scenes obtained by the LANDSAT satellite of a microbasin (2742.33 ha) in the municipality of Alta Floresta. Forest, water bodies, pasture and exposed soil were the thematic classes determined to e mapping the land use evolution. The edge, density and shape indexes of the fragments were measured. Normalized vegetation difference (NDVI) values were high in 1985. Land use and occupation over 15 years (1985–2000) reduced forest cover by 69.8%, but it increased by 1.7% over the next 15 years (2000–2015). The number of exposed soil patches increased between the periods, but the total area and number of the patches of the forest fragments decreased. The high values of NDVI in 1985 showed vegetated areas with high density. Reducing forest cover decreases the size of the fragments, increases the isolation and the number of soil patches exposed. The mapping of land use showed a reduction of the Amazon forest in the microbasin in the north of Mato Grosso, in the years 2000 and 2015 compared to 1985.
Highlights
In the early 1980s, the Brazilian government encouraged deforestation of native forest by colonizers to occupy and own Amazonian lands[1]
The normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) emphasizes variations of band density for environmental analysis with conclusions based on the vegetal cover dynamics[12]
In 2000, the classification showed confusion between the pasture class and soil exposed with 99.2 and 96.5% of precision, respectively, but the accuracy for the other classes was 100%
Summary
In the early 1980s, the Brazilian government encouraged deforestation of native forest by colonizers to occupy and own Amazonian lands[1]. GIS quantifies the particularities of the landscape[8] and, when incorporated into Remote Sensing, analyzes the physical environment through a geo-referenced database at different dates and scales[9]. The normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) emphasizes variations of band density for environmental analysis with conclusions based on the vegetal cover dynamics[12]. NDVI has been used to classify the distribution[13] and to study the variability of vegetation biophysical parameters such as phytomass production[14], leaf area index[15], land use and occupation[16], vegetation fragmentation[17] and estimating agricultural productivity[18]. Land use and land cover maps and the fragmentation dynamics analysis are environmental monitoring and preservation mechanisms for decision-making, mainly in priority areas[21], as well as microbasins in regions with great deforestation
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